Forty-Seven              

Camp Loren, CJSOTF-A, Sub-Base
Bagram AFB, Afghanistan

You are Meixiang?”

Daniels stepped in front of the woman, cutting off Haur’s line of sight.

Haur gave a halfhearted smile. “I am no threat to you or to her.”

Unfazed and undeterred, Daniels held his aim. “I’ll be the judge of that.”

But Meixiang edged back into view, living up to her reputation as the skilled, bold operative Jianyu had said she was. “I am Meixiang,” she said in perfect Mandarin.

With a respectful nod, Haur smiled. “It is a pleasure to meet you at last.” She was much paler than he’d expected for his brother’s tastes, but her beauty could not be denied. “You created quite a stir in the Zheng dynasty.”

Though she said nothing, Meixiang studied him. Intently. She flicked a finger to the body at his feet. “Why have you done this?” Haur smiled again. “In time, Meixiang.”

Shouts and thudding boots reverberated through the building. More military police poured into the room, weapons at the ready, in full tactical gear.

General Burnett stood there, shielded by two MPs. “What is this, Zheng?”

Haur raised both hands, the gun dangling from his thumb. “Thank you, General.” Eyes on those before him, Haur dropped the magazine. Expelled the chambered round. Slid the barrel off. A few more quick flicks, and the weapon lay on the table. “There are times we implicitly trust those who work close with us. We come to believe so fully in their identities, we do not question them.” He glanced at Meixiang. “Sometimes that is a mistake.”

She eased to the side. Eyes locked with him, she retrieved the barrel from the floor.

“What’s your point? Why is Bai dead?”

“Captain Bai is dead because I killed him.” He straightened and held his head high. Not that he was proud of his actions, but there was no point in denying the obvious. “I discovered not too long ago that he was not my ally, but my enemy.”

Burnett stepped past the guards. “Is that supposed to enlighten me?”

“I was sent to the mine to check on Jianyu. General Zheng ordered me into this country to find Jianyu and bring him home.” He tilted his head. “But as the mission progressed, things became less certain.” His gaze shifted to Heath. “At the village with your team, I saw something that told me I had been betrayed.”

“What was that?”

“I saw my brother and General Zheng there. Together.” The image burned into his memory. “They hugged. Father and son, happy. Not as the bitter rivals they had pretended to be.”

General Burnett planted his hands on his belt. “Why would they do that?”

Haur snorted and shook his head. “I think you, of all people, know why, General.”

The older man took another step into the room. “Zheng Xin came to me after you were knee-deep in this mission.”

It should not have surprised Haur to hear this. The twists, the betrayals were enough to solidify his determination.

“He said you were the rogue son, Haur.”

Words held the power of life and death. And in that moment, a piece of Haur died. The piece of flagging courage that had fallen into the trap of a man he thought he’d made proud. Yet the wound from those words cut deep.

“Now, why would he do something like that?”

“It was time.” Three beautiful words that would allow him to keep a promise. “When I was fifteen, my father left China. Defected—with your help, I believe, General Burnett.”

The man yielded nothing.

“In the days before my father’s escape, I learned of Xin’s suspicion of his oldest friend, my father, so I chose to stay behind.” Haur tried to steady his palpitating heart, noting the stunned expressions but also the unaffected ones. Meixiang was hardest to read and yet, somehow, he felt he had an ally in her. They’d both been burned by the Zhengs.

“I played the abandoned, grieving son, allowed Zheng to take me in and adopt me so his anger and attention would be deterred. I knew the man would find greater pleasure by drawing me into his camp than by killing me. Making me his son was an act designed with only one purpose—to destroy my father.

“I have endured more than twenty years under the mental and verbal abuse of General Zheng Xin.” Haur let out a heavy breath, so relieved to unload that knowledge. “When I realized Bai was not my captain, not my friend, but an asset of General Zheng himself, I knew I had been betrayed.”

“How’d you know it was him?” Daniels asked.

“Little things along the way, but the two most revealing—when he threw the grenade that set off the avalanche. He was trying to bury you all alive.”

“And the other thing?”

“He had too much information to be a man under my authority.”

“What does Zheng gain by betraying you to us?” Daniels asked.

“Irony.” The word hurt. Stung. “He believed you would kill me …” Haur let his gaze linger on the weapons still aimed at him. “My father defected to America, and there would be no greater satisfaction for Zheng than if the Americans killed me—”

“We’d be killing the son of one of the greatest Chinese assets we’ve ever had.”

Peace swarmed Haur as he reveled in the words of the general. “Thank you.” He confirmed his secret thoughts, that Burnett was the one who’d helped his father. And the words encouraged him to hope that his father was still alive. “The bombs—I believe it is close to lunch, is it not?”

Burnett hesitated. “I’m warning you, Haur. If those bombs aren’t found, I’ll feed you to Zheng myself!”

Anticipation hung rancid and thick as they waited with Haur, while the teams searched for the explosives. But something just felt … off. Heath glanced at Trinity, but she had curled into a ball in the corner, uninterested. Poor girl had been through enough to sleep for a week. And if she was zoning now, then there was no threat.

Then what was eating at Heath’s internal radar? He glanced to the side—

Darci.

Hand to her stomach, she eased to the back of the room.

What was that about?

Burnett advanced. “You expect us to believe you spent twenty years under that man and never tried to escape?”

“There was no need to escape.” Haur shifted, as if the words made him uncomfortable. “My father—my real father—was safe. Do not mistake my outstanding service record for loyalty to evil men. I did what could be done to keep them from hunting down my father.” Serious and tense, Haur held his ground. “I have no regrets.”

“Ya know,” Heath offered, “I wondered why you never referred to General Zheng as ‘father.’” He inched closer, determined to ferret out what was needling him. “You were vague in the mountains when I asked you about your relationship.”

Haur nodded as soldiers removed Bai’s body and aided the wounded guard to sick bay. “It takes more than a name to make a father. Zheng is a cruel man, who bred a cruel son.”

“But you called Jianyu ‘brother.’ How is that?”

“We grew up together. After my father left and I went to live at the general’s home, Jianyu and I were inseparable. I looked up to him—he was fierce, a fighter. Respected. Admired.” The man’s gaze slid to someone in the back. “He was a ladies’ man, which is why I was especially intrigued with Meixiang, the legendary woman who took my brother down.”

“Jianyu’s weakness took him down,” Darci said.

“It is evident, is it not, that while Jianyu and the general accepted me in name, they never accepted me in heart.” Haur’s smile was genuine. “As I never accepted them. Not fully.”

Darci came forward. “Why? Why did you not accept them? You had that beautiful home, wealth, fame …”

Haur glanced down. “Those are poor replacements for family.”

“We found them!” Candyman’s voice boomed through the room.

Burnett glared. “Just like you said.”

Heath glanced at the general, who seemed peeved. “Then what’s wrong?”

“It’s too easy.” Burnett pressed his knuckles to the table and leaned toward the thirtysomething colonel. “What’s your game, Haur?”

50 Yards outside Bagram AFB

“Go ahead.”

“It’s done,” the voice said. “Ordnance found and disabled the bombs—and Burnett doesn’t know, but locals have reported the bodies of the Russians. It’s about to blow wide open.”

“As expected.”

“There’s been a small complication though.”

Jianyu ground his teeth, feeling the jaw muscle pop. “What?”

“Haur and Bai were arrested upon returning to the compound. Haur killed Bai.”

“Understood. Well done.”

“I do my job well and count on people like you to make sure I’m never found.”

“It will be so.” Jianyu ended the call, rubbing his thumb along the spine of the phone as he stared out over the dark night. The final betrayal had come.

“What news?”

Jianyu lifted his gaze from the darkened interior to the wash of moonlight reflected over the blanketed road. “It is done.”

“All of it?”

“Bombs have been found, disabled.” Still, it unsettled him that Haur had taken extreme measures. “Bai is dead.”

A belly-jouncing chuckle filled the interior of the camouflaged vehicle. “Just as we planned.” His father pushed open the door. “They’re distracted. Let’s move.”